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Saturday, November 19, 2011

orange + Bret Hudson : Saga Of The Ugly 2

As a fellow Zerosoft and GMC member, I've seen a great majority of orange's games, but this one likely tops the list. Made for the Scary 4 Digits competition over at the 64Digits community, SOTU 2 is a collab between orange and Bret Hudson.
It's a story-driven horror platformer (represent!) reminiscent of a lonely Hades. There's plenty of characters that offer some witty words but it all gives a feeling of detachment; alone in the face of company. Not something easy to pull off.

But I'll get to the point. The biggest plus for this game -- the one that really convinced me to review it -- is the characters. Right at the start, you're greeted with this monstrosity named Uvulapoz, a paranoid little bastard who's constantly warning you against going forward. He descends from the ceiling seemingly at random to deliver his messages. My favorite character, Glueman, has an adhesive tongue that he uses to glue pieces of your key together. Even minor characters, like the guy in the screenshot above, have an odd air to them. He's hanging on a lock, for heaven's sake. Sounds like something from Saw.

Mechanics-wise, the game is relatively passive. There's really no fighting of any sort -- your character is unarmed and is forced to lure enemies into traps rather than actively attack them -- which plays directly into the central goal: find the exit as soon as possible. It's quite simple at heart, but the developers managed to drag it out into a full narrative.

Overall it's an excellent game with an excellent atmosphere and excellent characters and I strongly suggest you go play it or something.

ThatSnail: I read the review section whenever I see a new review has been posted. Unfortunately the GMC mods and admins don't care about the review section too much so more people can't become reviewers. ):<